I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tablets rapidly disintegrable in the buccal cavity.
II. Prior Art
There are various types of oral administrative medicines: tablets, capsules, granules, powders, syrups and so on. However, such oral administrative medicines have several problems as follows. As to tablets and capsules, for example, it may be hard for aged person or children whose swallowing power is weak to swallow them. And as to granules and powders, they may cause unpleasantness in the mouth after dosage or they may erroneously happen to enter into a respiratory tract or lungs. Further, they can't be taken where there is no water because water is usually required for dosage. As for syrups, it may be difficult for aged persons or children who can not measure them accurately to take them due to the trouble of measuring them for dosage.
On the other hand, solid medicines which can be rapidly dissolved or disintegrated in the buccal cavity can be taken without measuring nor water, so they may be easily taken by such aged persons or children. Further, such solid medicines can be taken without water.
By the way, there have been developed several types of medicines which can be rapidly dissolved or disintegrated in the buccal cavity on dosing.
For instance, in JP-B-62-50445, solid medicines which can be produced from water solution that mainly contains gelatin including an active ingredient by use of freeze drying method are disclosed. And in WO93/12769, solid medicines which can be produced by drying suspension including agar are also disclosed. However, the medicines produced by the above-mentioned prior methods do not have enough hardness to be taken by pushing out of PTP packages (Press Through Pack) containing the medicines. And, they require a special pharmaceutical technique and also require an enormous investment in plants and equipments.
JP-A-5-271054 and WO93/15724 disclose production methods of tablets wherein tablets composed of a saccharide are produced in such a manner that a saccharide mixture supplied with appropriate water is compressed at a low pressure and then dried to make solid tablets. However, such methods also require a special pharmaceutical technique and have the fear that powder composing the tablets may be adhered to the surface of a metal mold in compression process under moistening condition. It may be therefore difficult to utilize those methods in manufacturing use in a plant.